I’m often the butt of the joke when it comes to being the last living person not to join Facebook. Even Aunts, Uncles, household pets are online gossiping away. Friends have to explain what I’m missing. But, a stream of articles like this onecontinue to haunt me.

In social networks, people can increase their defenses against identification by adopting tight privacy controls on information in personal profiles. Yet an individual’s actions, researchers say, are rarely enough to protect privacy in the interconnected world of the Internet.

You may not disclose personal information, but your online friends and colleagues may do it for you, referring to your school or employer, gender, location and interests. Patterns of social communication, researchers say, are revealing.

“Personal privacy is no longer an individual thing,” said Harold Abelson, the computer science professor at M.I.T. “In today’s online world, what your mother told you is true, only more so: people really can judge you by your friends.”

Well, luckily, my friends are a pretty dynamic, smart, responsible, attractive bunch. But, I’m still not ready to take the FB plunge.

There’s something uneasy–my old fashion self can’t be bothered with the “parade of failed relationships” and long-lost friendships that were probably not that strong to begin with. I know there are real benefits that I am missing out on, (photos, networking, invites, inside jokes) but I don’t know if the pros outweigh the cons just yet. Plus, Linked In is already my boring form of being online.